"It will take a long time for Sri Lanka to bridge this gap" - Gautam Gambhir on Rohit Sharma-led side's emphatic win in the 1st IND vs SL Test

Gautam Gambhir believes it will take a considerable while for Sri Lanka to bridge the enormous gap between them and Team India in Test cricket.

The Indian team thrashed the visiting Lankan side by an innings and 222 runs in the first Test in Mohali. The win also helped Rohit Sharma get off to the best possible start to his tenure as Team India's Test skipper.

During a discussion on Star Sports, Gautam Gambhir was asked about Rohit Sharma registering an emphatic win in his first Test as skipper. He responded:

"There is so much difference between India and Sri Lanka. If you talk about Test cricket, there was a time when India and Sri Lanka used to play in the subcontinent, there was not much difference. But if you see today, India has dominated. It will take a long time for Sri Lanka to bridge this gap."

The former India cricketer pointed out that the one-sided victory was the best thing Rohit Sharma could have expected as a first-time skipper. Gautam Gambhir observed:

"When you captain your country for the first time in this format, you want to start with a win and there cannot be a more convincing win than this. You won the toss, did all things correctly."

Gautam Gambhir added that it was a complete team performance from the Indian side. He said:

"You scored runs, your lower-middle order scored runs and after that your spinners and your fast bowlers - so somewhere or the other a proper team performance."

All the Indian batters got off to starts in the first Test against Sri Lanka, although only Ravindra Jadeja (175*) and Rishabh Pant (96) could make it big. It was an all-round effort by the Indian bowlers as well, with only Jayant Yadav failing to pick up a wicket.

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"Ravindra Jadeja - there couldn't have been a better Test match than this" - Gautam Gambhir

Ravindra Jadeja stood out with both bat and ball in the first Test against Sri Lanka [P/C: BCCI]

While observing that the Test match belonged to Ravindra Jadeja, Gautam Gambhir added that it could have been even better had he taken another wicket. He elaborated:

"Ravindra Jadeja, no doubt - there couldn't have been a better Test match than this. It would have been the icing on the cake if he had taken 10 wickets along with the 175 runs. I don't remember when someone would have done it last time - scoring more than 150 runs and taking 10 wickets."

Jadeja would have become the first-ever player to score more than 150 runs and take 10 wickets in a Test match. Unfortunately, the last two wickets of the Sri Lankan second innings were taken by Mohammed Shami and Ravichandran Ashwin, and he was left stranded on a nine-wicket match haul.